Sunday, September 18, 2016

Sewing Bee–Round - Bias Dress

Woof. This dress wrecked me. It’s not a hard dress, it’s not super technical or anything, but those arrows. . . and fitting everything on fabric on the bias . . . and more matching of arrows . . . yikes.

So here’s the backstory. I was pretty annoyed with this challenge for a few days. I actually could not sleep one night because I was so worried about figuring out a stupid pattern. In my head, I kept thinking of flowy, billowy, clingy bias dresses. I am not that gal, I hate slippery fabrics and hate wearing them. They always feel cold to me and I’m an Alaskan. I do not enjoy cold fabric on me. Then I realized that “bias” is just how you are cutting it. Ding, ding, ding! Once I got over that hump, I realized that Burda had tons of simple bodices that I could add a circle to and be done. Then, I realized that back in 2012, I actually made the perfect pattern for this dress. Really, my only change was to make there be a CF seam, length it, and to, of course, cut everything on the bias.

I spent so much time getting these arrows to match. So. Much. Time.

Under some sewing miracle, the side seams also match. This was not planned, it was just good luck.

There is a slight hi-low hem and the waist seam also goes down in the back.

This is a canvas from Cotton + Steel. Yes, a canvas. And it still spins like this! It’s a great fabric.

I did not line it because it was so pretty. I love how the inside makes chevrons too.

I bound the sleeves and neckline with bias strips.

I totally nailed this invisible zipper. The chevrons match, you can’t see the zipper, and there are no ripples or bumps at the end of the zipper.

I love how each chevron is unique because they are not all arrows meeting in the middle. My favorite is the gold metallic dots that meet in the middle.

I pinked every seam and pressed almost all the seams open so you can see the fun chevrons on the inside too.

This was the original pattern. I added 8.5” to the peplum to make it a dress. I lowered the neckline by 2 inches and I left off the sleeves.

I spend so much time on my knees marking the skirt panels on this fabric. I had to move them over and over again and try to fit everything on this fabric while making sure that the stupid lines matched. You can see I barely had enough fabric.

Woof, indeed. Even with all the hard work, I do really love the dress.